How to see like a settler: Neha Soman, B. Padmanabhan, ‘Human territorial behaviors and power politics in Assaf Gavron’s The Hilltop: a spatial re-examination’, GeoJournal, 89, 2024, #21 | settler colonial studies blog

How to see like a settler: Neha Soman, B. Padmanabhan, ‘Human territorial behaviors and power politics in Assaf Gavron’s The Hilltop: a spatial re-examination’, GeoJournal, 89, 2024, #21

28Jan24

Abstract: The dynamics of settler colonialism are intriguing areas of enquiry with contesting geo-political variables to consider. The objective of this article is to address the complexity of settlers and the settler landscapes in the occupied territories of Israel through a literary analysis of the novel The Hilltop written by the Israeli author Assaf Gavron. The novel brings into life the chaotic aura that surrounds the settler landscapes, and through this article we attempt to deconstruct the complexity of settler lives by analyzing the territorial behaviors of the settlers as portrayed in the novel. The fictional landscape of The Hilltop is closely read to understand the interplay of space, territory, and power as advanced by Foucault, Gold, and Duarte to explore the diversity of human behaviors in terms of their political, religious, economic, and emotional engagement with the surroundings. We also examine the significance of the fictionalized accounts of territorialized social groups, such as the Jewish Israeli settlers for re-imagining their social image against the representations in dominant political and media discourses.

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